One-Step Easy Contouring

The sacred word.  The bad word.  The scary word.  The expensive word. I have heard all four of these and more used to describe contouring.  This makeup trend has been mainstream for nearly two years and the Kardashians seem to own the copyright.  It is true, with highlighting and contouring your face can look incredibly chiseled, ten pounds lighter, and the “better” version of you but most think it takes a ton of skill and money to achieve and they are half right. If you want to look like Kim, yes, but if you want to look lke you, but just a little bit better, no. 

I have tried the acclaimed Kat Von D Shade + Light Contour Palette and it is as good as all of the beauty bloggers and top YouTube stars say it is.  It takes a ton of practice and is a bit hefty, both in price and weight, so if you are a beginner or beauty on-the-goer like me, getting read at the gym before work in the morning, I have found an easy, one-step contouring solution!

It is a fraction of the size of the big palettes and is $20, no brush needed!  For the last month my go-to has been the Sephora Highlight Lowlight Face Contour Duo in Medium: 

The matte highlighter and warm contour glide on smoothly are are extremely buildable to achieve whatever look you are going for but the real question is – where to apply it? 

I have been a fan of Cara from Maskcara for years and her diagrams on highlighting and contouring for your face shape are spot on. Personally, I think my face is somewhere in-between an oval and a heart shape so when doing a quick and easy contour I try and follow a mix of Cara’s two illustrations: 

Taking the brown end of the stick I make sure to darken around the hairline on my forehead, down the sides of my nose, and just below my cheekbones. With the lighter end I draw inverted triangles below both eyes, in-between my brows, and always put a bit of highlight just under my lip. Here is a close up: 

And then blend, blend, blend. The finished product? 

Do you contour?